The current design of external rear view mirrors with which various types of vehicles are equipped provides an external rear view mirror that extends outwardly from each vehicle body and, thus, is easily scraped. To avoid this problem, a protective cover is mounted on the external rear view mirror to prevent the scraping thereof.
Current protective covers are mainly formed in three forms: 1) a hard shell housing having a fixed shape, 2) an adhesive film, and 3) a fabric cover. Each of the foregoing protective cover forms has disadvantages. For the hard shell housing having a fixed shape, because different types of vehicles have different rear view mirrors, a custom designed mold is necessary for each type of external rear view mirror, resulting in a high production cost, difficulty in mounting and removing, and a lack of universality. For the adhesive, because the surface of the external rear view mirror housing is generally of an arc shape, the adhesive film may be poorly attached to the mirror surface resulting in a rough surface and stains which are difficultly removed may be left on the mirror housing surface after the adhesive film is removed. For the fabric cover, a special paper pattern and a special cut are required for each type of external rear view mirror. Due to the lack of the universality, one protective cover cannot match with external rear view mirrors having various sizes and, further, it may even cover a portion of a mirror surface, resulting in a potential safety problem.
In sum, all of the foregoing protective cover design solutions have the disadvantage of lacking the universality.